A bubbly casserole of sorts, this Mexican beef and bean is like a baked version of chilli con carne with lots of melty cheese – but faster to make. Think of it like your ultimate all-purpose Mexican beef – stuff in tacos, DIY burrito wraps, dunk with corn chips – like nachos!
Cheesy Mexican beef and bean bake
I can’t remember how this Mexican beef and bean dish first came to be. All I know is that when it came out of the oven in all its bubbly, melty cheesy glory, I wanted to get stuck into immediately but paralysed with indecision for how. So many options!
Like chili, with a warm tortillas on the side for dunking??
OR with corn chips, deconstructed nachos style?
Making stuffed tortilla pillows?? Which, I realised, is just a burrito actually. 😂 *Light-bulb-moment* DIY burritos! Add a pile of warm tortillas, sour cream + guacamole or quick avocado sauce for dunking. Everybody make your own!
All-inclusive-taco filling? So juicy and cheesy already, it’s like a good ole’ classic beef mince taco filling + taco sauce + cheese, all rolled into one. Efficiency, for the win!
Then another light-bulb moment. This is like the ultimate all-purpose Mexican beef filling!! It’s almost a little concerning how excited I was when I came to this conclusion. Good food has a habit of doing that to me. 🤭
What you need for Mexican beef and beans
Here’s what you need to make this Mexican beef and bean bake:
This is a casual, rustic dish – which means, lots of flexibility. I’m not so relaxed with substitutions for some recipes, so take it when you can! 😂
Ground beef / beef mince – Or chicken, turkey or pork. Any of these would work. (Even lamb actually).
Red onion – Or ordinary brown / yellow onions.
Green capsicum (bell pepper) – Or other colour capsicum, or other sauté-able vegetables like diced zucchini/courgette, carrot, green beans (chopped), corn. Even a cup of diced mixed frozen vegetables would work here!
Red kidney beans – Or black beans (on theme with Mexican food), or any other beans of choice. Or, more vegetables.
Tomato passata – This is pureed, strained tomato that is smooth, rather than lump like canned tomato. Substituted with crushed canned tomato, or what’s called tomato sauce or tomato puree in the US (eg Hunts).
Pickled jalapeno – Adds a sprinkle of spiciness plus tang because it’s pickled which is nice in this beefy dish. Canned chopped green chillies would be an excellent sub here (but this is a US thing, hoping it becomes a staple here in Australia one of these days!).
Garlic – Can’t be flexible here! 🙂
Cheese – Definitely not flexible here! Well, not flexible about the inclusion of some form of melting cheese. I’ve opted for Colby – adds flavour, melts well, gets a nice bit of golden colour on the surface, not too greasy. Feel free to use any of choice. If you use mozzarella, I’d suggest adding a sprinkling of parmesan on top (because mozzarella, while it melts beautifully, doesn’t have a much flavour).
The Mexican spice mix
And here’s what you need for the homemade Mexican spice mix. Some Mexican recipes I share have a longer list of spices. For me, this is about the minimum you can go without the flavour missing something. All staple spices! (You can substitute smoked paprika with plain).
How to make Cheesy Mexican beef and beans
It’s like chili cone carne – but faster to make because by finishing it off in the oven with a generous sprinkling of cheese, we can skip the stove simmer.
Sauté the onion, garlic and capsicum first. Use an ovenproof skillet. Pictured is my much-loved 26cm / 10.5″Lodge cast iron skillet (my essential kitchenware list is here!).
Cook the beef, breaking it up as you go.
Toast the spices with the beef. Good way to bring out flavour in spices plus get better flavour into beef mince / ground beef – FAST. 🙂
Add beans and tomato passata, give it a good mix then bring to a simmer.
Top with cheese then bake for 15 minutes just to melt the cheese.
Remove from oven and start the agonising process of deciding how to serve it! Tacos? Corn chip dunking? Burrito stuffing? ENCHILADAS? Nachos?? #FirstWorldProblems
Sides / toppings
Pictured in post for serving in all the above listed forms are:
Guacamole, and sometimes avocado sauce (essentially a smooth, faster version of guac)
Pico de gallo (fresh tomato salsa). Also this pureed tomato salsa would be great.
Sour cream (sub yogurt)
Fresh coriander/cilantro
Tortillas – small ones and larger enchilada size ones (for making small burritos).
Corn chips – for dunking
Other excellent options includes:
Mexican red rice, plain white rice (or brown, or cauliflower rice if you’re doing the low-carb thing). Rice in bowls then smother with the Mexican beef and beans.
And….. eeer… I’m stuck. Help?
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Cheesy baked Mexican beef and beans
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion , finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 1 green capsicum / bell pepper , cut into 1cm / 1/2″ cubes (or other colour)
- 500g/ 1 lb beef mince (ground beef) (Note 1)
- 400g/ 14oz can red kidney beans or black beans , drained (or other beans)
- 1 cup tomato passata (Note 2)
- 1/3 cup pickled sliced jalapeño (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 cups Colby cheese , shredded (or other cheese, Note 4)
Mexican spice mix:
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (sub normal paprika)
- 1 tsp garlic powder (sub onion powder)
- 1 tsp onion powder (sub garlic powder)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (sub black pepper)
- 1 tsp cooking/kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F (180°C fan).
- Sauté – Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat (or other oven-proof pan). Cook onion, garlic and capsicum for 3 minutes.
- Cook beef & spices – Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see raw meat. Add spices, then cook for 1 minute.
- Beans & tomato – Add kidney beans and passata. Stir, then bring to a simmer.
- Cheese it! Scatter the jalapeño across the surface, top with cheese.
- Bake 15 minutes (no lid) then remove from the oven.
- Serve! Scoop into bowls and serve with corn chips or tortillas with your favourite Mexican fixings (guacamole or avocado sauce pico de gallo or restaurant style salsa, fresh coriander/coriander, sour cream). Dunk like nachos, make DIY burritos or tacos!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Dozer’s idea of obeying my command to stay outside the shop.
The vibrant colors and aromatic aromas that fill the kitchen as the bake comes together are simply irresistible. I can already imagine the satisfying crunch of the golden cheese on top, the savory goodness of the seasoned beef, and the comforting richness of the beans.
We loved this dish, for my vegetarian son, what could I
use instead of meat, please Nagi. Thanks again. Meg K.
You could substitute the mince with a plant-based mince. I’m not sure where you’re based but if you’re a fellow Australian, I find V2 generally works quite well in Nagi’s beef-based recipes (I’m vegan so frequently make the RTE Chilli Con Carne with V2). If you’re in the US, something like Beyond Beef would be a good option. 😊
So, so good. We had ours with nacho chips for Cinco de Mayo and leftovers in wraps. Lawd, it was delish, I’m salivating right now just writing about it. 😂
Big hit on fight night! Thank you
This was absolutely delicious! I wasn’t sure how it would compare to the slow cook (mince) chili con carne recipe, but it’s actually a really great week night alternative. We had it with corn chips and nacho toppings, so so good!
Absolutely fabulous and so easy. Its become a firm favourite already.
This is so, SO good. We’ve made it three times since the recipe was released (less than 3 weeks ago) and making it again tonight. Easy, frigging delicious, and versatile – have had it with rice, nacho, and burritos (leftovers going into a large burrito for lunch). Winner winner beany dinner!
Pasta! I put in a cup of uncooked spelt spirals just before the oven. It’s a one pot meal that’s fab. Only use half the mince and sub with turkey, sometimes adding half veg in place, frozen peas and corn etc. Super tasty and healthy dish 👍
A simple dish to make however packed full of flavour. Another winner Nagi 😊 Your making it extremely hard for me to buy takeaway for the family when you keep creating simple delicious meals
Hi Nagi! Huge fan an eagerly awaiting your recipe book release in South Africa!
Just wondering if you can use 90/10 beef mince for this? Or do you need to use lean beef mince?
Another brilliant recipe using ingredients I already had at home.
Thank you
This was amazing. I will add this to my list of kid friendly dinners!
Easy, quick, and delicious, a keeper. Thank you Nagi!
What a winner! Quick, easy and so tasty. Too good!
Hi Nagi, I made this tonight and it was a real hit. Even my picky grandson scoffed it down and asked if I could make it again. You are amazing!
Hi Nagi, Love love love all your recipes. A mention by in one of the comments of using Mexican oregano, cannot find it here locally in Victoria. When googled, says marjoram is a good sub as well as a pinch of coriander to get the citrus flavour. Do you agree, and what quantities. Thank you!
Hi Jan, I’m in Melbourne and I get a big bag for around $2 at Casa Iberica. Lasts me for ages, and I use it in all my Mexican and South American recipes. Hope that helps!
Hi Nagi, I have your book and am really enjoying it. One thing I really miss though is that on line I could put in 7 people and the ingredient amounts would automatically update for me.
Not complaining, love your recipes.
Thanks Juanita
Juanita just justo onto her website and look up the recipe there and you will be able to use the scale up or down function.
It doesn’t say the temperature of the oven????
It’s instruction number 1
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F (180°C fan).
I am not good with hot stuff, and I only had 399 grams mince. I cut down a little on the spices and when it was ready I ate almost half with doritos cheese nacho chips. loved it, will do this again for sure.
This is probably a stupid question, but do you drain the fat from the hamburger? Love your recipes and Dozer makes my day!
Hi Elaine! That is not a stupid question 🙂 I do not because fat is where the flavour is and I don’t get excessively fatty meat. But if there was tons of fat, I probably would drain *some*! N x
Thank you for replying. I can’t wait to try this tomorrow. By the way, your meatloaf recipe has become a family favorite! Thank you for all you do and please pat Dozer for me!!